Archived: Loving Angels Care (Northampton)

Updated 28 November 2019

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector and one assistant inspector.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission, the company had a nominated individual who was covering the registered manager role, while the company recruited to this post. We will refer to this person as the manager within this report. This means that the provider was legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 22 October 2019 and ended on 25 October 2019. We visited the office location and visited people on 22 October and made calls to staff and people on 25 October 2019

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We used all this information to plan our inspection

During the inspection

We spoke with ten people who used the service and one relative about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with ten members of staff including the provider, manager and care workers,

We reviewed a range of records. This included six people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We spoke with two professionals who regularly visit the service.

Updated 28 November 2019

About the service

Loving Angels Care (Northampton) is a domiciliary care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of the inspection 60 people were receiving personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People told us they felt safe with staff. Staff knew people’s needs and gained consent before completing tasks.

People told us, staff were often late to calls. The provider had not followed their own safer recruitment processes. Not all staff had the relevant checks required by the company policy.

Audits were completed, however certain audits had failed to identify some of issues raised on inspection. People were asked for feedback on the service via reviews or online.

People told us that staff were kind and caring. People had a good relationship with staff.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.

Care plans and risk assessments were completed with details of people’s preferences, choices, communication, likes and dislikes. This supported staff to know how to support people well.

Staff supported people to access healthcare services when appropriate and made referrals as required to the relevant professionals such as, occupational therapy, GP’s and district nurses.

Staff respected people’s right to privacy and promoted people to be as independent as possible. People’s communication needs were known by staff and the manager could provide documentation in different formats to meet people’s needs.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection.

This service was registered with us on 15 November 2018 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.